


What Comes After Zero

by VampireBadger



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: Carlos is the world's worst wedding planner, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Post-Canon, Spoilers, and he uses a dog to win all his arguments, families, talking about time travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7381615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireBadger/pseuds/VampireBadger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers for ZTD. A series of drabbles, mostly set after ZTD.  Expect lots of fluff, lots of family stuff, basically characters finally getting their happy endings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"So what happened to the other Sigma? The one you traded places with to come here?"

Sigma has been dreading this question. Not so much because he thinks Diana isn't going to like his answer, but because he's worried about the other questions it might lead to. What about _their_ future? What happens to them, together? Where do they go from here.

It's February 1, 2029. A month after their successful escape from the DCOM and the Decision Game their son had created, and so far they've been too busy with recovering to worry about the big questions. Physically, the participants are fine. Mentally, they could all use some work.

"Sigma?"

He's worried that she'll run, now that they're out. He's far more entrenched in the strangeness of shifting and alternate timelines than she is, this has been his life for decades now. Away from the immediate dangers of the Decision Game, what if she decides it's all too much for her?

Diana climbs onto the couch Sigma is sitting on, and leans against his side. She kisses him on the forehead, which works remarkably well for pulling Sigma out of the thoughts he's buried himself in.

"What happens to that other you?" she asks again. "Won't he be stranded in the future with nothing to shift back to? Or will he come back here, and replace you?"

"He won't come here," Sigma says. "I'm a stronger shifter than he is, and I've never had the opportunity to test it, but I don't think he could take my place even if he tried."

"So he _is_ stuck," Diana says, face wrinkling as she frowns. Sigma hates those wrinkles—he hates seeing her sad.

He shakes his head. "Look at it like this," he says. "Of all the timelines we lived through during the Decision Game, only one of them leads to the future I came from. That means there's only one of him looking for somewhere to jump back to. But there are many timelines that came out of the Decision Game, he only needs to shift to one of them. He'll do what I did, and shift back to the timeline that leads to his bad future."

"Are you sure?"

Not at all. After a lifetime of studying shifters, the only thing Sigma knows for sure is that he will never understand how it works.

"That sounds right to me."

Sigma and Diana both look up, and Diana flushes a beautiful pink. They'd both forgotten Phi was in the room with them, apparently.

She seems unperturbed to find the two of them nearly glued together. "There's only one Sigma looking for a timeline to shift into—he's not going to choose this one."

"Alright then," Diana says, face clearing. "Nothing to worry about."

"No," Phi says, but she meets Sigma's eyes rather than Diana's. "Nothing at all."

Sigma nods, just a fraction. Message received. It's possible that by staying here, Sigma is denying his past self this timeline. Maybe that younger Sigma could have shifted back here, into a world that's already been saved, and he'll never have to live through the Decision Game.

But Sigma isn't giving this timeline up. He's not giving up Diana or Phi or the second chance at a happy life. Diana doesn't have to hear that, and Sigma knows he and Phi can bear the burden alone.

"I'm leaving now," Phi announces. "You can go back to trying to make me a younger sibling, or whatever you were doing."

"Wha—" Sigma colors. " _Phi!_ "

She only waves at them on her way out of the room. "Try for a girl," she says, voice flat. "I don't think I want another brother."

When she is gone, and Sigma is torn between raging feelings of guilt because of what had happened with Delta and embarrassment because _seriously_ , Phi?

It doesn't seem to bother Diana.

"We could," she says, laughing.

"What?"

"Try. To have another baby."

Sigma smiles. It's still amazing, after decades living alone, to have found someone that makes him smile on a daily basis. "We could," he agrees. "We could do anything we want, now."

After all, who's to say what the future holds?


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

Sigma looks up from his computer, and for a second just watches Sean instead. The helmet that serves as his replacement head is lying on the table Sean is currently perched on, so it's difficult to get a read on how he's feeling. Sigma thinks he must be nervous, though—from his tone, from the tight way he grips the table's edge. Maybe it's just a sign that they've spent too much time together working on this project, or maybe something else, but somehow he seems more like a normal little boy right now than he ever has before. Sure, maybe he's missing a head, but he's so childishly _nervous_.

"It's going to work," Sigma assures him. "I've worked on plenty of robots before."

"But you didn't make _me_ ," Sean says. "How do you know I'm going to work the same as all your other robots?"

"Well if it doesn't work, we'll just try again," Sigma says. "Even if this trial is a flop, it's not going to do anything to hurt you."

"Well… I guess…"

"It won't," Sigma says. "So are you ready to try?"

No response from Sean, apart from a bit of nervous twitching.

"Sean?"

"Oh!" He says. "S—sorry. I forgot I wasn't wearing my helmet. I was nodding." He laughs, and Sigma finds himself holding back a grin himself. What a world they live in.

"Right," he says. "Here we go."

He reaches over, and unplugs the head from where it's connected to his equipment. Then for a moment he hesitates, looking into the expressionless face of the head he and Sean have spent weeks working on. Sigma had suggested recreating the face of the boy Sean had originally been modelled on, but Sean had vetoed it immediately ("His parents should still be alive," he'd told Sigma. "He'd only be a little bit older than you right now if he'd lived—can you imagine what they'd say if they saw me, with their dead son's name _and_ his face?").

So the head in his hands has a face all its own, one they'd invented together.

"Sigma?" Sean says. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Sigma says. "Just… a bit distracted."

"Can you be a bit distracted later, please?" Sean asks. "I'd rather you be focused on me when you're trying to attach my head."

Sigma nods, and steps over to Sean. It takes about five minutes of fiddling to correctly attach the head, and for a moment it doesn't look like it's going to work. The head just sits on Sean's shoulders, lifeless and stiff. Then the eyes blink, the mouth opens—and suddenly Sean is smiling at Sigma. His first smile.

"It worked," he says, in a voice so disbelieving it's nearly a question. He puts his hand up to his face, feeling the way it moves and changes as he says, again, "It _worked_!"

"I told you I know what I'm doing," Sigma says. "Although this is still just a prototype. There will probably be bugs that don't show up right away, so if you notice anything unusual in the next few days, let me know right away. And I haven’t done much work with quantum computers before, like the one that's doing your thinking—if we ever find out where Delta hid that after the Decision Game, I'd be able to study the code and make things a bit more comfortable for you. And—"

Sean interrupts him by pushing himself off the table. He lunges toward Sigma and wraps a pair of shaking arms round his waist. "Thank you, Sigma!" he says. "Thank you, thank you, _thank_ you!" He sounds like he's crying, and Sigma makes a vague mental note to check if there are tears—he always has trouble making that work. "I can go out in public now, I can talk to other people and make friends, _thank you_!"

Maybe this isn't the best time to think about debugging. "You're welcome," Sigma says, and hugs Sean back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone else spend the whole game expecting that Sean would have a face one of the times he took off his helmet? Because I definitely did.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have no idea how many times I had to rewrite this chapter before I was partially satisfied with it--and it still ended up about 1500 words longer than I meant it to be.

Carlos is busy these days.

It's mostly his own choice. If he throws himself into work, into helping Maria, into normal things, then maybe he won't have to think about DCOM. He's grateful Shifting gave him a way to save his sister, but sometimes he wakes up at night in a cold sweat, rubbing at his wrist just to prove his hand is still attached—

There are less nightmares when he falls asleep exhausted, so he fills his days with as much activity as he can, and tries not to think about things too hard.

The exception to this is the first Wednesday of every month, because those times are set aside for the nine survivors of the Decision Game to meet up and talk. Or—well, to go online and use webcams to talk, anyway, because they're scattered all over the world and getting them together once a month would be hugely difficult and expensive.

Sigma, Diana, and Phi are still in Nevada. Mira's in a high security women's prison in upstate New York, with Eric's living as close as he can get to said prison. Sean bounces between Nevada and New York, because Sigma is still working on Sean's robotics, but _someone_ has to keep an eye on Eric to make sure he's going to therapy, and not, say, swinging shotguns around and threatening to shoot people. Junpei and Akane are back in Japan, hunting down the man Delta claims is going to kill eight billion people. As for Carlos, he's is in California and has no plans to leave until Maria is fully recovered.

Which is why it's so lucky they have the internet.

Carlos takes the day off work. He knows he'll just be distracted, and he's a firefighter. If he's not paying attention, other people get hurt. Even if it turns out to be a quiet day with no emergencies, Carlos would feel guilty that other people might possibly be in danger because of him.

So he stays home, in his cramped apartment. It used to be cozy when it was just him at home, but now Maria's out of the hospital and living with him, and they have Gab (what an argument that had been, after DCOM— _everyone_ wanted to take Gab home). Carlos is going to have to start looking for a new apartment soon. Two bedrooms. First floor, obviously, for easy escape in case of an emergency. And working fire detectors. And—

"Carlos," Maria calls. She's stretched out flat on the floor on the other side of the room, scratching Gab behind the ears. "Aren't you supposed to be calling your friends?"

He checks his phone—it's 11:59. "Just about time," he agrees, and logs on.

-//-

Junpei opens his eyes and finds a digital clock blinking two inches in front of his face. His first, sleepy instinct is to whack the damn thing (because the time it's blinking at him is _four in the morning_ , and he needs more sleep). Then he squints, and looks up a little, and sees that the clock is being held by Akane, who he doesn't want to hit.

"It's 4:00," she says.

"Yes," Junpei says. They stare at each other for a second. Junpei starts to get the impression he's missing something here—not exactly unusual, with Akane, but he's really hoping this isn't going to be another lecture about morphogenic fields.

"It's Thursday," Akane says, patiently.

"And…?"

"The meeting, Junpei!"

"Oh!" He jerks upright, banging his head on the alarm clock, and sending Akane into a fit of laughter. Junpei mock glares at her, and really glares at the alarm clock. "Okay," he says. "I know this meeting is a good idea—"

"I should hope so," Akane says. "Since it was _your_ idea."

"It helps," Junpei says. "After something like that, you need to be able to talk to the people that went through it with you. But couldn't we have figured out a time that didn't involve any of us getting up before the sun?"

"Mira," Akane reminds him.

"Right—" Junpei rolls his eyes, but he still lets Akane grab his hands and haul him out of bed. "How come _she's_ the serial killer, but _we're_ the ones getting punished?"

"By waking up early?" Akane teases.

"Yes!"

"I'm sure Mira has her own problems," Akane says, starting to set up the computer.

"You know she killed me in another timeline," Junpei mutters. But he shuffles over to the computer anyway, and sits down next to Akane, just close enough that he can lean against her shoulder. Some days, he still can't believe he's here. He can't believe he's found Akane after all this time, that they're sharing a too small apartment, that they fall asleep together every night, that they're going to _marry_ one day.

Oddly enough, the fact that they still spend most of their days hunting the extremist who is supposedly going to kill eight billion people doesn't strike him as particularly unbelievable.

-//-

Mira is going to kill someone.

Theoretically, prison is supposed to be rehabilitating, but Mira has never wanted to kill someone as much as the girl hogging the one computer in the prison's library with a working webcam. Mira is only allowed one hour of internet access per week, and this is it. If this girl doesn't stop using the webcam to flash her boyfriend, or whatever, Mira is going to take the shiv shoved up her boot and carve this woman open.

She could do it.

It'd be easy.

It'd probably even make her feel better.

But she doesn't. Just like all the other times she's considered killing someone since turning herself in, Mira doesn't stab the girl hogging the webcam. And just like every other time, she's not entirely sure why.

Instead, she takes a different computer. No webcam, but at least she can see everyone else, and the instant messaging part should work fine.

Mira glances up at the clock hanging on the wall, and scoffs when she sees it's ten past three already. She's late, and this bothers her more than she would have expected. Maybe—as impossible as it seems—she's really, honestly missed these people.

What a strange idea.

-//-

Eric is absolutely over the moon about the meeting this afternoon, and Sean knows why. He's going to see _Mira_ again, and what else has Eric ever cared about.

"Have you talked to your psychiatrist about all this?" he asks, while Eric continues cleaning the already spotless apartment (just in case Mira is able to see it on whatever low quality computer she'll be using).

"All what?" Eric asks.

"Uh…" Eric is better these days. Sort of. He's making progress, anyway, but Sean still knows to be careful about what he says. Especially about Mira. "How much you miss her?" he says at last. "And… how you're coping with missing her?"

Eric shrugs. "We talk about her sometimes," he says. "The doctor says it sounds like I'm being too clingy and possessive with Mira."

"He said that?" Sean asks. "And you didn't—" He stops short of actually saying 'and you didn't threaten _him_ with a shotgun?' and luckily Eric doesn't seem to notice the slip.

"Well he pointed out that it's probably making Mira uncomfortable," Eric says. "And I wouldn't want her to be unhappy. So we're working on it."

He smiles—he always smiles—but for once the expression actually looks genuine.

"Good," Sean says. Mentally, he congratulates Eric's therapist for being smart enough to describe Eric's unhealthy obsession with his serial killer girlfriend as something Eric will be able to handle.

"It's almost time," Eric says, turning eagerly to his laptop. Sean watches him fiddle with the keyboard and thinks—it could work. Mira rips peoples' hearts out and Eric is probably the least mentally stable ice cream seller in the history of the world. But maybe they're just strange enough to work it out.

"I'm going to propose to her today," Eric announces. "I've decided."

"Over the internet," Sean says. "While all our friends are watching. And she's in jail."

"Yea," Eric says. "I just—I can't wait another second, not for Mira. Why, do you think I should wait?"

"No," Sean says. "No, I don't really think I expected anything else from you."

-//-

Phi logs onto the computer fifteen minutes late, while Diana and Sigma are still arguing in the other room. As soon as she connects, a wave of sound hits her, six people all talking at once. Or five, really—a quick glance at the screen tells Phi that Mira hadn't managed to get a camera. But she's typing furiously into the instant messenger space at the bottom of the screen, mostly in all caps, and entirely without correct spelling or grammar.

Phi sits back and raises her eyebrows.

"Phi's here!" Sean chirps after almost a full minute has passed.

"And apparently missing something," she says. "What's going on?"

"Eric proposed to Mira," Carlos says. "Mira looks like she broke a little."

 **AJJJJJARGH???!** Mira types.

"And then Junpei said he asked Akane first, so they have to get married before Mira gets out of prison, and then Akane said they can't get married until we know some extremist isn't going to blow up the entire world."

"Ah," Phi says.

"So how are things with you?" Carlos asks. "Where are Sigma and Diana?"

" _I WILL MARRY YOU TOMORROW,"_ Eric shouts in the background, presumably at Mira.

Phi jerks her head toward the other room. "Diana's going to court today," she explains. "To finalize her divorce."

Everyone stops shouting and looks at her.

"From that asshole?" Junpei asks.

Phi winces, but nods. She's not exactly sure when Diana's troubles with her ex-husband got to be common knowledge, but since Diana doesn't seem to mind, it's not Phi's place to complain. But she hates anyone, even their friends, pitying Diana. Diana doesn't need anyone's pity, Diana is _strong_.

"Sigma offered to go with," Phi says. "She told him no, because he's just going to get violent."

There's a general murmur of agreement that yes, actually, it might be nice to have Sigma beat the crap out of Diana's abusive ex.

"So then I offered to go talk to him instead," Phi says. "But Diana said that would probably be just as bad." She allows herself a small smile at the knowledge that someone thinks a few words from her can do as much damage as Sigma's fists.

**DO YOU WANT ME TO BREAK OUT OF HERE AND RIP HIS HEART OUT?**

" _No_ , Mira!" Sean protests.

**…**

"But seriously," Junpei says, lowering his voice a little. "This is Diana we're talking about, right? She's probably the nicest one of us all, we can't let her go see her crazy ex all by herself. _Someone_ has to go with her."

"Excuse me—"

Phi turns around sharply, only to find Diana planted in the doorway, arms crossed, dressed four court in smart clothes that Phi has never seen her wear before. Sigma hovers uncertainly behind her. "Diana," Phi says. "We were just—"

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of my own problems," she says. "I ran away from that man once. I went to DCOM to get away from him. But when I was there I learned that I'm stronger than I thought I was, and stronger than _he_ thought I was." She smiles, a confident, self satisfied expression. "And anyway, what's he possibly going to do that's worse than what Zero did?"

"Diana…" Sigma steps forward and hugs her—she accepts it and reciprocates for several seconds before stepping back.

"He can't do anything to hurt me now," she says. "And I'm going to solve my own problems."

And then she turns and marches off, heels clicking sharply on the tile floor. Phi waits until she hears the front door open and then close again before turning back to the computer. "That's my _mother_ ," she informs them, voice fierce and quiet. Behind her, Sigma steps closer and squeezes her shoulder.

The good mood lingers another thirty seconds or so, and then Junpei turns to Akane and says, "But we're _definitely_ getting married before Mira and Eric, right?"

**I DIDN'T EVEN SAY YES YET**

"Junpei," Akane says. "We agreed that we'd marry _after_ the bomber is caught—"

"Please, Mira?" Eric begs.

**well…**

"Diana and I have discussed marrying after her divorce is finalized," Sigma says. "Maybe we'll beat all of you."

"You didn't tell me," Phi says.

"Congratulations," Carlos says, beaming.

"Mira…" Eric says. He doesn't seem to be aware of any of the other conversations going on around him.

**FINE.**

Sean bursts into laughter as Eric sags in extremely visible relief.

"We wanted it to be a surprise," Sigma tells Phi.

She frowns. "Well, I'm surprised."

"And upset?"

She opens her mouth—pauses. Thinks. Shakes her head.

"Me and Mira are definitely getting married before any of the rest of you," Eric crows.

"Yea?" Junpei says. "Well your fiancé's in jail and mine's a genius."

"Junpei," Akane protests, but she's grinning when she gives him a swat on the arm.

"Hang on," Carlos says. "Just… everyone hang on. I have an idea."

"Yes?" Sean says.

"All of you get married at the same time," he says, positively beaming. "One ceremony, three weddings, nobody goes first and everybody's happy. And it gives us all an excuse to see each other in person for once."

"That's a terrible idea," Sigma says.

"We'd all have to go to Mira's jail," Junpei says. "She can't exactly leave."

"And I _still_ want to wait until we find the bomber," Akane adds.

"I can't wait that long," Eric complains.

Carlos bends over as they go on bickering, and for a second the part of the screen showing his feed displays only a cluttered (but fully prepared for a fire) apartment. Then he sits back up, and holds up a squirming bundle of fur to the camera. "I'll bring Gab."

For a second, everyone is quiet.

**THIS IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA**

"I'll go if Gab goes," Phi says.

"I suppose… there's nothing wrong with getting married _before_ saving the world," Akane admits.

"Perfect!" Carlos says. Gab barks and licks his chin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm just going to point out that LOOK ERIC IS GETTING THERAPY. He's so unstable, and it's just very important to me that he gets professional help. And probably medication. I don't know but he scared me more than Mira in the game, which is weird considering she's the one that cuts people's hearts out. 
> 
> And speaking of Mira--I know a lot of people seem to dislike that Mira turned herself in and married Eric in the Q epilogue. I included both of those things here because (a) it happened, it's canon, and I'm trying not to go too AU here, and (b) because I really want Mira to do those things. I agree it wasn't set up well in the game, but I'm hoping to write some more Mira-centric scenes that help a bit. At least for head canon purposes. :)


	4. Chapter 4

In the aftermath of the ambidex game, Kyle finds himself suddenly at a loss. It's odd, because he has spent his whole life alone (or nearly so), but it is only now that it really comes home to him how… directionless his life is. How without purpose his whole existence has been. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before.

And it's not really happening _to_ him now, is it? It's just happening _around_ him. Kyle has been told that he participated in the game in some other timelines; he doesn't have any memory of it himself. From his perspective, he woke up in a pod one day and there were strangers everywhere, and everyone is talking about shifting and morphogenic fields and saving the world, and his father is _not_ his father, but a younger version of the man…?

"You told me I'm important," Kyle tells Akane one night. He's in the lounge, cleaning up the remnants of the escape puzzle there. He hates seeing all that, everywhere he looks. This is the place he'd grown up, this is his _home_ , and it's been turned into the setting of some kind of murder game.

"Of course you're important," Akane says. "Kyle, you're immensely important."

"When you first said that—" Kyle is throwing crap into a plastic garbage bag, and has to stop at this point because his hands are shaking. His _actual_ hands, not the hands of his suit, and for a second that calms him. He'd woken up in the gardens without his suit on, and he's never, _never_ putting the fucking thing back on again. "When you said I was important, I thought I was going to _help_ , I thought I'd be saving the world too…"

"You will."

"How?"

Akane sighs. "Do you understand the basic concept of what your father went back in time to do?" she asks.

Kyle shrugs, one shoulder, up-down. "Sort of. He wanted to change the past. I suppose it was supposed to stop six billion people from dying."

"Yes," Akane says. "More or less."

Kyle risks looking up from his own hands, up at Akane—she looks incredibly tired, and older than she ever has before. "He failed," he says. "This world still exists. The Radical-6 outbreak still happened."

"Worlds are never destroyed," Akane says. "Even if a new branch is created in the past, and that one leads to a happy world, this one still exists."

"And?"

"And," Akane says. "Your father went back in time, and played in a game much like the ambidex game here—the decision game. That game spawned many other timelines. I suspect some of them ended happily. I certainly hope so. But the existence of those worlds doesn't make this one go away. No matter what other timelines exist, there has to be one where your father failed. This timeline has to exist."

"So this is… a bad ending?" Kyle asks. "Yes? The Earth is still devastated from Radical-6. You said I'm supposed to help save it, but isn't it too late?"

"Six billion people are dead," Akane agrees. "Yes. And it's too late to change that. But Earth was never your world, was it? You weren't born there, you've never even been there." She pats him on the shoulder, and starts to move away. "You're going to save _your_ world."

Kyle stares after her, speechless, as she walks away. He's not sure if any of that was supposed to have made him feel better, but all it's done is confuse him. He still feels helpless. He feels used.

He goes back to stuffing trash into his garbage bag. Pieces of a globe, liquor bottles with implausibly bright colors and random astronomical symbols. Kyle sweeps them all into his bag of trash. Whatever Akane says about Kyle being important and saving the world (or saving _his_ world, whatever that means), he is starting to feel like his only role in this whole, ridiculous mess, is to be the garbage man.

-//-

When the lounge is cleaned, Kyle moves onto the infirmary. He stomps in, muttering unhappily to himself, still bad tempered from his conversation with Akane. It's not until he's taken several steps inside that he realizes he isn't alone.

"You're Kyle," the old man says, and—it might be Kyle's imagination, but he looks like he's almost trying not to smile. "Right? You look different without the suit."

Kyle nods slowly, fidgeting a little. "And you are—Tenmyouji?"

"Yea." The old man crosses his arms, and for a long minute there's silence between them. Kyle scrambles to think of something to say, but really he's not much good at this. He's never had much of a chance to talk to people.

"What are you doing in here?" he asks at last. It seems like a reasonable question to ask. There's nothing particularly interesting in the infirmary (Kyle has always hated it—he still remembers his father bringing him in here when he was small, for vaccinations and other shots).

"I—" Tenmyouji looks almost panicked, and Kyle watches him visibly searching for an excuse. Then his shoulders slump, and he shakes his head. "Hiding," he admits. "From… from Akane."

"Why, exactly?"

"Oh…" he makes a noise that's half frustration and half sadness. "I don't know. I've spent forty years of my life looking for her, and now that I've found her, all I can think is it's been too long. She used to be my whole world, but now—"

" _Grandpa!_ "

Tenmyouji cuts himself off abruptly as a kid—Quark, his name is _Quark_ —dashes into the infirmary. "Clover's been looking through the pantry, and she found the ingredients for a root beer float! She says she'll make them for us, do you want one?"

Kyle watches Tenmyouji's expression transform itself, from one of deep unhappiness into something—else. Not something Kyle is used to seeing, from his limited experience with other people. It starts with a smile and grows out from there, until it covers his whole face, and creeps inside him until his eyes light up. "I'll be there in a minute," he says. "You go on ahead."

When Quark has run off again, Tenmyouji nods at Kyle. "Now _he's_ my whole world," he says. "I love Akane. Once, I would have given up anything to be with her. But she… didn't feel the same. She chose not to care about me, and I suppose I can accept that. But it's still hard to see her."

Kyle nods, and lets Tenmyouji follow Quark back to the pantry.

-//-

He can't sleep at all that night. There are too many unfamiliar people in the base, too many strangers still waiting in a sort of limbo until they can decide what comes next. And it's not like there are all that many places to sleep (most of the rooms are still littered with the remains of the crazy puzzles Kyle's father and Akane had set up), so Kyle's stuck sharing with Tenmyouji and Quark. His room is part of the small suite that had been kept out of the ambidex game, and that's something to be grateful for, but somehow, even when it should seem so normal and so much like home, Kyle can't stop himself from feeling homesick.

Kyle lets them have the bed and stretches fdhimself out on the floor. It's not like it's any less comfortable than sleeping in the suit. But it doesn't matter how long he lies there, he just can't drift off. Instead he watches Tenmyouji with his adopted grandson, 'his whole world.'

He spends some time wishing he had someone like that, who could care for him so wholeheartedly. But he's lived his whole life in one place. Until very recently, he's only known two other people. For the longest time, he'd thought his father was the only real human in the whole world…

At half past one in the morning, Kyle creeps out of his room, careful not to wake Tenmyouji or Quark. He sneaks down the hall, reveling in how easy it is to stay silent without the suit he's worn his whole life. And he goes to save his world.

It takes him a while to find his father. Kyle hasn't seen him since his consciousness returned to his body from the past, when he made his excuses and crept away from the group. No one's talked to him. Not Akane, not Phi…

But Kyle does find his father, eventually. He's in the laboratory, bent over a work table, stiff and still. Kyle creeps up on him, too nervous to make any noise, and says, "What are you doing?"

His father sighs, shoulders slumping. "Kyle," he says. "It's you."

Kyle nods. "What are you doing?" he asks again.

"I don't know," his father admits. "I've been working toward recreating the ambidex game since I was just about your age. Now it's all over. I went back in time, like I've been trying to do for forty years, and I failed. And I'm stuck here, in this world, where so many people are dead, and we've lost so much."

"But you're not giving up, are you?" Kyle insists.

"I don't think there's anything else to do," his father says.

"To make things better?" Kyle asks. "I think there's plenty of things we could do that would make peoples' lives better."

"Six billion people died because of Radical-6," his father says. "Six billion—"

"Isn't everyone," Kyle says. "Right? There are still people out there, people like Tenmyouji and Quark. And you…" he gestures around them at the laboratory. He's lived here all his life, and it's still full of things he thinks he'll never be smart enough to really understand. "You know pretty much _everything_ , don't you? We can help the people that are still alive, we can take the knowledge and technology we have here, and bring it to other people, we can do really amazing things, and _really_ do some good! You don't have to give up, okay? This isn't the end just because the time travel didn't work out for you."

His father stares at him. "I wish I could see things like that," he says. "But all I can see right now is my own failure."

"That's okay," Kyle says. "Maybe that's why I'm here." He looks again at the laboratory, this time with a far more critical eye. He's trying to imagine the potential of all these supplies, trying to figure out what he and his father can do to make things better.

"To keep me going?" his father asks. He sounds a little more cheerful, but not much.

"To save you," Kyle says. And he's never said this to his father before, but something—maybe the strangeness of the past couple days—makes him look his father in the eye, and speak. "Akane says I'm here to save the world. _My_ world. And I didn't understand until Tenmyouji told me Quark is his whole world. I started thinking about how you… I…" he's tongue tied and uncertain, but forces himself to keep going. "I've never wanted anything more than I wanted you to be my father. Especially when I was a kid. I lived for your attention, and your approval. You were everything I knew, you were my world. I can't watch you give up now, so I'm going to save you from yourself instead."

His father doesn't say anything. But he reaches one arm out, and puts it awkwardly around Kyle's shoulder. They stay like that for a long time, until it stops feeling awkward and starts feeling right, until Kyle inches closer, until the two of them are leaning on one another just to stay upright.

Maybe things aren't perfect. But for the first time, Kyle is hopeful that they'll get there someday.

"Thank you," his father says.

Kyle smiles. "No problem, Dad."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is such a mess, Kyle turned out to be really difficult to write.


	5. Chapter 5

"Sigma?"

He's standing in the empty room next to Phi's, worrying over what to do with it. It hasn't been long since they all moved in together, him and Diana and Phi, but already every other room in the house is starting to take on a certain character. They feel lived in. Homey. Only this room remains untouched, and Sigma knows why. They haven't exactly talked about it, but Diana's hoping they'll need it for a nursery. She wants to have kids. Sigma can't stop worrying about the possibilities—he could live with having another Phi. He's not sure what he would do with another Delta.

" _Sigma_."

And there she is. Phi. Standing in the doorway, looking as uncertain as Sigma feels. He tries to look like he hadn't just been zoning out on her. "Something wrong?"

"Yea," Phi says. She waves one hand vaguely out in front of her, as if it doesn't matter all that much, but her other arm is folded tightly across her chest. "No. Maybe."

"Phi."

"I'm not sure," she admits. "It's just… I've been thinking. About how I grew up."

Sigma nods. To be honest, he doesn't know much about Phi's childhood. She hasn't given him all that many details.

"You know how you and Diana in that other timeline sent me and Delta to 1904? And then scientists there sent me forward to 2008 alone? Well, I've been thinking about it, and I'm almost certain that the old woman that raised me was actually the other me, from 1904."

Sigma nods, then realizes Phi probably isn't expecting him to take something this odd in stride. Then he remembers that this is Phi, and she's rather odd herself. "Alright," he says. "Thank you for telling me, I suppose?"

"I just thought you and Diana might want to meet her," Phi says. "If she is who I think she is, anyway."

"I—well, sure, but—"

"Great," Phi says, already heading back down the hall. "She's downstairs."

"She's _what_?" Sigma demands, hurrying after Phi.

"I called her after we got out of dcom," Phi says. "I didn't want her to worry, I just didn't expect her to come down in person. And I didn't put two and two together until she actually got here." She pauses, and gives Sigma a sheepish look. "You might think I'm kind of slow—"

"You? Never."

"But I really didn't think there was anything odd about her name being Phi as well. I just thought it was an odd coincidence, I didn't really have a _reason_ to think there was a second me running around somewhere…"

She trails off, and Sigma realizes they've reached the house's front room. There's a woman standing there, and Sigma thinks she looks old but surely not old enough to have been born in 1904.

Then again, Delta hadn't looked a day over eighty either.

Her hair—long and red and halfway down her back—is the exact same shade as Diana's. It's the same as Phi's, just at the roots where she's starting to let her natural color grow back. She looks between Sigma and Phi—and laughs at them. "So," she says, giving Phi a quick, one armed hug. "You've figured it out at last."

"You could have said something," Phi grumbles.

"I had my reasons," older Phi says. "You've met our brother."

It's not a question, but Phi nods anyway. She perches, birdlike, on the arm of the couch, while her older self takes the chair facing it. Sigma glances upstairs, where Diana has paused on the landing to give the three of them confused looks, and gestures for her to come down and join them.

"Delta and I didn't grow up together," the older Phi says. "After they put me through the transporter a second time, to make you—" she gestures at Phi. "They sent me away as well to America, to some scientists there. Delta stayed in Germany. I assume it was some kind of experiment, but the records were lost completely in World War I. But, well—Delta. We met when we were in our twenties. Pure coincidence, we just happened to stumble onto one another. And he knew who I was, of course. He always had a way of just knowing things."

"His mind hacking," Phi says.

The old woman's mouth curls in visible distaste. "Exactly," she says. "And he knew I was a shifter, and after that he... never really let me go. He can only control people for a second, but you'd be surprised how much you can make someone do in a second."

"Anything he wants," Diana says, softly.

"Yes," the older Phi agrees. She looks at her younger self. "I was just trying to keep you away from him. I know you hate to be protected, I know _exactly_ how you feel about that. But you don't understand how it feels to be under his thumb for years and decades—

"It's okay," Phi says. "It really is. I understand."

The four of them sit around talking for quite a while. An unusual family reunion, but Sigma is seriously starting to give up hope that anything in this family will ever be normal.

He's still getting used to the idea of them being family.

Eventually, Diana gives the older Phi a hug that lasts a full minute, and excuses herself to get ready for work. The younger Phi leaves a few minutes later to answer her phone, and suddenly it's just Sigma and his daughter from another timeline who is older than he is.

"You don't look 124," he says, after a long, stretched out silence.

She laughs aloud. "It's the hair," she says. "I went white decades ago, but I still die it. I always liked being a redhead."

"And she—the other Phi—dies her red hair white."

She almost laughs at this. "Who are you to talk, anyway?" she asks. "Or are you going to try and tell me you're really twenty two?"

"You know about that?" Sigma asks. "Did Phi tell you?"

"I—no." And somehow, in an instant, she seems to age. It's like the weight of the world is suddenly bearing down on her shoulders, and she can't bear to carry it a moment longer. "I helped Delta plan the decision game. I know everything that happened while all of you were at dcom. In every one of the timelines."

"But—oh." Sigma frowns. "Of course. He would have needed a shifter, so he would know what preparations to make for each timeline. And… that shifter was you?"

"He told me he would leave me alone," she says. "After almost a hundred years of dropping in whenever I least expected him. After a century of him telling me what to think and what to do, and he said it was going to be the end—"

"It's okay," Sigma says. "I understand. And everything turned out alright in the end."

"In this timeline."

"Well—I suppose."

They sit in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. Diana leaves, hurrying out of the house in her scrubs, shouting an apology for leaving, but she's already fifteen minutes late…

"Why did you volunteer to raise our Phi at all?" Sigma asks, after Diana is gone. It's a conscious effort to redirect the conversation away from Delta. "You could have let someone else take her in."

"I wanted… I never had a mother," the older Phi says. "I had to make sure she had one. I tried to give her the childhood I wanted to have. But I ended up leading her straight into the decision game, so I'm not sure I got it right."

"You did great," the younger Phi announces, coming back into the room. She sounds fierce and protective, and she makes her older self smile. She perches herself back on the side of the couch. "I do have a question though, if you don't mind."

"Of course."

Phi holds up her brooch. "Is this the same one you got from Diana? Because she gave it to us when she put us in the transporter. And she got it off my charred remains when I died in another timeline."

Sigma winces at her matter of fact tone.

"But that doesn't make sense," Phi goes on. "Because then it can't have come from anywhere."

"Oh," her older self says. "That's an easy answer. You didn't have the brooch when you came through the transporter. But I had mine, and I knew how important it was to have something from my mother. So I went out and bought one that looked just like it, and I told you I'd found you with it. I'm sorry for the lie, but I just couldn't give mine up."

"No," Phi says. "No, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure it came from _somewhere_ , and now I know that you bought it, and give it to me, and then Diana took it out of the incinerator—"

"Phi, please," Sigma complains.

"And she gave it to you." Phi nods. "So it all makes sense and there's no paradox. That's fine."

She nods and gives a satisfied little smile, then announces she's going for food and heads for the kitchen.

Sigma and the older Phi wait until she's safely out of sight—then look at each other and start laughing.

-//-

Diana gets home late that night. She's tired, and looking forward to curling up in bed with Sigma. Only he's not in their room, he's not in his makeshift lab of the basement, and it takes Diana several minutes to find him.

He's in the empty room Diana can't stop thinking of as the nursery, looking at it contemplatively.

"Sigma," Diana says. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking…" he gives her the serious, intense look that always reminds Diana he's not as young as he looks. "I'm thinking we should have kids. Lots of kids. And we should do everything we can to make them happy."

Diana's so tired she almost laughs. "But—are you sure? You said you were worried about getting another Delta."

"I was," Sigma says. "I still am, a little. But maybe this is our chance to get it right. So we have to try, don't we?"

"I think…" Diana takes his hand with a smile, and leads him back to their bedroom. "I think we had better start trying as soon as possible, don't you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's one in the morning so I'm sure this is a stupid idea, but right now I'm just so tempted to have Diana giving birth during the triple wedding with Junpei/Akane and Eric/Mira, just for maximum confusion...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene takes place a few months before ZTD, between 1904!Phi and Delta.

She hates coming to see her brother. Hates it. But here she is, visiting the extended care facility where he's working on his _poor me, I'm deaf and blind_ routine. Phi thinks vicious things at him as she walks down the hall to his room, trying to get them all out of her head before he sees her. She's here today because she needs something from him, and if he hears her thinking _you pathetic bastard_ as loud as she possibly can, he's never going to agree.

Well, he'll never agree anyway. She doesn't have to be able to mind hack to figure that one out. But Phi feels she has to try.

Delta is sitting on his bed, reading a book, when Phi walks in. Despite her earlier resolution to keep from saying insulting things, she can't stop "You're not very good at pretending to be blind if you're sitting there _reading_ ," from popping out of her mouth.

"Phi," Delta says. "Have a seat."

There are two chairs in the room; one, at the desk halfway across the room from Delta, and another right at his bedside. Phi has every intention of taking the one by the desk, but finds herself sliding into the other one. Fucking mind hacking—fucking _Delta_ , and his goddamn power games. She resists the urge to roll her eyes. "Do we have to go through this every time we have a conversation?"

There's a little glitter of amusement in his eyes. "You know," he says. "When I was a child, I knew a boy who force fed his sister snails for fun. I don't think a little mind hacking is quite as bad as that, do you?"

What _is_ it with him and snails?

Phi lets the subject pass without comment. Delta smiles, and she knows he's adding the conversation to some mental tally of who wins their conversations; he's exactly the kind of person that thinks a conversation is something that has a winner and a loser.

"So you're here to convince me the Decision Games are a bad idea," Delta says, without preamble. "You're going to ask me to change my mind."

"Of course," Phi says. She's used to Delta knowing everything she's going to say before she says it; annoying, yes, but hardly the most dangerous aspect of his powers. "Delta, please. Reconsider. Whatever reasons you have for doing this, they're not worth all the death. Six _billion_ people will die in one of the timelines. You know that."

"Eight billion will die if I don't do this."

"So your brilliant solution is to orchestrate the Decision Games," Phi says. "An event which will create twenty separate timelines. Only _one_ of which leads to Radical 6 being released on the population. How does that even make sense to you?"

He smiles at her, and Phi's skin crawls. She clenches her hands in her lap, and has to force herself to stay in this timeline. After over a century of practice, she's mastered the ability of shifting more or less whenever she wants. It's still easiest to do when she feels she's in danger though, and that smile on Delta's face is making every shifting instinct in her body scream at her to get out of this timeline.

"Life," he says. "Is simply unfair. Don't you think?"

It is, admittedly, a natural opinion to have when Delta Klim is your twin brother.

"Please, Delta," Phi says. "I am… literally begging you not to do this."

"And yet I'm choosing to ignore your begging," he says. "It does amuse me, if it's any consolation."

Phi thinks of her other self, the much younger clone that has no idea what she's about to go through because of this man. That's the real reason Phi is here today, because yes alright they happen to be clones, but she's _raised_ that girl. She doesn't want her to live through death after death in other timelines, just to satisfy Delta's sick need for control. But she doesn't say a word. There is a lot of hate inside her brother. Phi is fairly sure he hates more or less the entire human race, but he _especially_ hates shifters. And out of all shifters, the ones he despises the most are his family.

Reminding him that the other Phi will suffer is only going to make Delta more determined to go through with his plan.

She's still trying to think of an argument that might convince Delta, when there's a knock on the door. Quick as lightning, Delta whips his glasses back on, hides his book under his pillow, and goes still. Phi glares at him, and in response he mind hacks her so that she calls, "Come in!"

He'd better not be planning to use her as his mouthpiece for this entire conversation. Phi knows he could if he wanted to, because he's done it before. It's horrible and humiliating, and she's fairly sure that's why Delta enjoys doing it so much.

She turns to the door just as a young man built like a brick wall comes walking in. Phi knows him, even though she's never seen him in this timeline. This is Carlos, one of the people that is shortly going to be forced to play Delta's Decision Game. Phi's spent enough time accessing the morphogenic field, forced by Delta to help him plan the games, to know his face instantly.

Still, she pretends to look him over like a stranger. Better to wait until she knows why he's here before saying anything.

Carlos smiles. By his face, he looks like he smiles all the time. But his eyes are tired and sad. "Hello," he says to her, his tone perfectly polite. "My name's Carlos. Do you mind if I have a few words with… uh, with Q?"

What a stupid pseudonym. Phi spares a moment to wonder why he couldn't have come up with a more normal sounding name to use during the Decision Games. But there's nothing she can do about that now, and honestly—of all the stupid things about this plan that she would _like_ to point out to Delta, this is pretty low on the list.

Carlos is still looking at her, still politely waiting for an answer. "Sure," Phi says, waving a hand vaguely toward the bed. She highly doubts Delta will do anything to hurt Carlos now. They're less than a month away from the start of the Decision Games, and Delta needs him in one piece for those.

"Er—alone?" Carlos says.

She's on her feet before she has the chance to say no. Thanks, Delta.

Phi stops just outside the door and leans against the wall. She's curious, more than anything. Carlos shouldn't have any reason to talk to Delta before the Decision Games, not unless—

Oh.

This is _that_ Carlos.

She listens harder, and can just barely hear Carlos talking to Delta through the thin wall.

"So, this is going to sound crazy," he says. "But I'm from the future. Not _too_ far in the future, less than a year. But I used this teleporting cloning device thing to send a copy of myself back here, so… well, that's complicated. But the people I came back to save aren't going to be in danger for a while yet, and I thought I'd come tell you something. Even though, um… you can't hear me. Or see me." He chuckles self-consciously. "This is kind of stupid, isn't it?"

There's a long pause after that, but eventually Carlos starts talking again. "Anyway, I can't go to any of the others, because that might change things too soon, and then maybe me in the future won't be able to clone himself back into the past, and… I don't know if that's good or not. But I thought there's no harm in telling you, because… well, you won't hear me anyway, right?" His voice gets a little bit stronger. "So I went looking for an old man called Q--don't see many of those--and I came here to tell you... to say...." He sighs. "Well, here goes. In a few months, both of us are going to enter this experiment in Nevada. And it's going to go horribly wrong, and a lot of people are going to die. But I'm going to save as many people as I can, okay? Everyone, hopefully." His voice is thick—it sounds like he's trying not to cry. Phi wonders how much he's been suffering since coming back, weighed down by the knowledge of what's going to happen in the future. In that moment, she hates Delta more than ever before. "I'll save you too," Carlos says. "If I possibly can, then I _promise_ I will."

He cries for a while after that, then hurries out of the room. His eyes are bright red and still wet when he brushes past Phi in the hallway. Slowly, she composes herself, and goes back into Delta's room.

"Well," she says. "He seemed like a perfectly nice young man."

"I suppose he is," Delta agrees.

"He's going to die many times in your Decision Games."

"I am aware of this, yes."

Phi glares at him. "You _utter_ bastard," she says.

"Both of us are, technically," he says, and he sounds so entirely unconcerned, so utterly _unreachable_ , that Phi gives up. She turns around and leaves the room without another word, and only when she is safely out of the range of his mind hacking does she dash into the nearest bathroom to throw up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things.
> 
> 1) Delta is an absolute monster. I don't care if he claims to have noble reasons for running the Decision Games, he's just completely and utterly terrible in my opinion.
> 
> 2) Okay, so can we talk about the copy of Carlos that went back ten months so he could eventually save Junpei and Akane in that one timeline? Because I was thinking about it, and shouldn't he have ended up in every single branch of the timeline? Think about it. He goes back in time to before dcom. There is only one timeline at this point. Then the timeline starts branching into many, as everyone plays the decision game. Carlos would either have to be in every timeline, or he'd just suddenly disappear from all the ones he's not needed in. So really, there should be an extra Carlos even in the good ending, right?


	7. Chapter 7

The way Carlos is the one with the gun, Junpei knows he could take it away from him without even really trying. Just one of the many skills he's learned in the past year. He could take the gun away from Carlos, and then… what? Shoot Delta? It's definitely the logical thing to do. He's dangerous, he has powers other people can't understand, and he'd just tried to kill six billion people. And Junpei knows Carlos will never do it—underneath everything, Carlos is a Hero. He has to save people, it's just how he _works_. And Delta is weaponless, defenseless, there's no danger to anyone else…

Junpei _should_ take the gun from Carlos and shoot Delta himself. Everything he's learned in the last year are telling him to do it. But what would Akane say?

"Do you hear that?" Mira asks suddenly.

"No," Eric says.

"Hang on," Sean say, cocking his head(ish thing) a little to one side. "I think I hear it too. Sirens?"

Junpei can hear them now too, a mixed up clamor of police, fire truck, and ambulance sirens, speeding across the Nevada desert toward them. The ten of them look at one another, and for once even Delta looks confused.

"Carlos," Akane says, gesturing to the gun he's still pointing at a defenseless old man. "The police are coming—"

"Right," Carlos says, and he kicks the gun away from the group just as the horde of emergency vehicles comes roaring up to them. People start getting out, but for a second no one does anything but sort of mill around in confusion. There's no emergency here for them to fight, and it's clear that they're a little bit at a loss.

Then suddenly he hears someone say, "You're under arrest," but it's so crowded by this point that he can't actually see who's been arrested. Junpei strains to get a better look, and halfway through the officer's recitation of the Miranda Rights, he realizes they've handcuffed _Delta_.

"How'd they know?" he demands, of the group in general. "Delta just said—he didn’t leave any evidence behind, so how can they know to arrest him?"

"I wouldn't get too excited," Mira says. She's watching the police through narrow, suspicious eyes, and Junpei remembers that oh yea, she's a serial killer, of course she's not going to be on good terms with the police. "They're arresting him for insurance fraud."

"For— _what_?"

She shrugs, which almost jostles her—er, everything—out of her jacket. A passing ambulance driver can't stop himself from staring, and she gives him an unconcerned little wave. Eric looks like he wants to punch the guy.

Sensing he's not going to get anything else useful out of Mira, Junpei looks around for someone else that seems like they might have answers. He's thinking Sigma, maybe, who always seems to know more than he should. Or Akane, who is brilliant and also his favorite person. But then he catches sight of an obnoxiously yellow jacket right in the middle of the crowd, and brightens.

"Seven!" he calls, and the yellow jacket turns toward him.

"Junpei!"

"What are you doing here?" Junpei demands. "Why are you arresting Delta? I heard someone say insurance fraud?"

"Yea," Seven says. "Can you believe it? He was letting his insurance company pay for his treatment in some expensive retirement home. And it turns out he's not blind or deaf after all. And he never needed that wheelchair."

"Sure," Junpei says. He feels like he's still missing something. "But what are you doing here? Working an insurance fraud case is a little beneath your usual pay grade, isn't it?"

Seven turns suddenly serious. "A friend of yours showed up the other day, and said you were in some pretty serious danger."

"Who?"

"Said I might want to come out here, and when I heard about this arrest, I thought they were probably related. Not exactly much else going on out here in the middle of nowhere. So was he right? Were you in trouble?"

"Yea," Junpei says, dropping his voice a little so no one else will hear them. "That guy, Delta? He's doing what Akane did a year ago."

"Only _not_ for the same reasons," Akane says, choosing this moment to butt into the conversation. So much for not being overheard (but somehow, Junpei can't bring himself to be annoyed). "His plan was to kill most of the human race using a virus that makes people commit suicide. Hello, Seven."

"Hello, June."

"Seriously," Junpei says. "Who was this friend of mine? How did he know about Delta?"

"Said his name was Carlos," Seven says.

"But Carlos is here," Junpei protests. "How could he tell you anything?"

"Ask him yourself," Seven says, and gestures to where the firefighters are standing around at the edge of the crowd, doing whatever it is firefighters do when they show up at an emergency and there's no actual fire. Seven cups his hands around his mouth and shouts, "Carlos!"

The Carlos that had been pointing a gun at Delta five minutes ago looks up at the sound of his name. He looks confused. But then one of the firefighters takes off his helmet, and…

"Oh _right_ ," Akane says. "Don't you remember, Junpei? Carlos used the transporter to go back ten months into the past, so the clone of himself could eventually get to that timeline where Radical-6 got out, and make sure the two of us escaped safely?"

Junpei frowns blankly at her. "I don't remember that at all."

"Oh," Akane says. "Yea, that was… probably because I used Delta's drugs to knock you out and wipe your memories."

There's a pause.

"Sorry."

Junpei makes a monumental effort to be bothered by this, but compared to everything else that's happened at dcom, he can't quite make himself care. It's not like it's happened in this timeline, and Junpei is too tired to care.

"Hey," Firefighter Carlos says, heading over to their little group and waving awkwardly. "I see everyone's alive here. So I guess this wasn't the timeline I was aiming for?"

"Not really," Akane agrees.

Carlos sighs. "Well, hopefully another version of me got there. I hate not knowing if he did, though. I still feel like I'm letting you guys down."

"He got there," Akane assures him. "Everyone's fine."

"Well some of us had our memories erased," Junpei grumbles. Everyone ignores him.

Carlos looks massively relieved. "I'm glad," he says. "Then I guess the only thing we have to worry about is Delta, right?"

"You know about Delta?" Junpei asks. "I thought Eric had already shot you when Sean figured out Q was Delta."

"And Zero," Akane adds.

Junpei is frowning. "Or did you get shot in another timeline? Or—sorry, it's hard to keep track."

Carlos shrugs. "Long story short, I went to see Q—Delta, sorry—a few months back. I met his sister. Then a couple days ago, she just contacts me out of the blue and said explained how he's Zero, and how he has this mind hacking ability that lets him read people's thoughts. Then she suggested the whole insurance fraud thing. I mean, it's only going to get him a slap on the wrist compared to what he really did, but it's better than nothing, right? And they got Al Capone for taxes, so…" he shrugs.

"Actually, I think I have an idea about that."

All four of them turn around as the other Carlos heads over. Seven eyes them suspiciously, looks like he's about to start asking questions, then shakes his head and visibly gives up.

"I was just over there," Carlos says. "Talking to Sigma. He says that whatever drugs Delta used to knock us all out and wipe our memories must have been _really_ illegal. So if we all submit to blood tests, it'll look pretty suspicious that we all have it in our systems and he doesn't, right? That might be enough to get him locked up for a while." He turns to his other self. "Do you think Delta's sister would be able to find some kind of record of her buying them?"

Firefighter Carlos grins. "I think it would definitely be worth asking," he says.

"Wait," Junpei says. "Wouldn't Delta's blood have the drugs too? I thought he was also getting knocked out. Or—"

"Doesn't matter," Carlos says, almost tripping over his own words in his excitement. "He told us he kept us knocked out for days, remember? Long enough to get rid of all the stuff he was using for the decision games. The drugs are probably out of his system by now."

They all look at each other and smile.

"Well," Seven says, clapping his huge hands together. "I think I understand less of what's going on here than I did when I started. But I guess I'll go talk to the EMTs for you about those blood tests, alright?"

"Thanks, Seven," Junpei says. Seven walks off, headed for the little cluster of ambulances.

A couple of seconds later, Sean wanders past them. He stops, looking them over.

"Are we just okay with the fact that there are two of Carlos now?" he asks.

"Yep," Carlos says. Firefighter Carlos nods. "Looks like we'll have to get used to it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please just ignore the fact that the second Carlos was never even mentioned in earlier chapters. It didn't occur to me until yesterday that there should even be two of him.


	8. Chapter 8

It takes a really long time to figure out how to do a triple wedding. Primarily this is because of Mira, for what should be obvious reasons. It would have been difficult enough arranging a triple wedding under the best of circumstances, but when one of the six people in question is serving multiple life sentences for serial murder, it becomes exponentially worse.

"We _have_ to have the weddings in Mira's prison," Carlos complains, to no one in particular. Everyone's crammed into Eric's tiny apartment, because he's the only one that lives anywhere near Mira. A week ago, it had seemed like a great idea to have them all stay together. And then they'd showed up, with their suitcases and their wedding things, and there's barely even room to move. It's complete and utter chaos, and Carlos isn't sure if anyone's even listening to him complain. But it makes him feel better "Because they're not exactly going to let her out for the day."

"I'm working on that," Sean calls, clambering over the back of the couch to get to the kitchen. "See, I have this idea—"

"You are not breaking Mira out of prison," the other Carlos—the one that had used the teleporter to travel back in time, the one they've started calling Carl just to preserve their collective sanity—tells Sean.

"It wouldn't be hard," Sean whines. "I could do it…"

"Weddings first," Carl says firmly. "Prison breaks later. _Maybe_."

"Fine," Sean grumbles. "But it would be a lot easier to do the weddings if Mira was already out of jail, wouldn't it?"

Well, yea, obviously it would be easier. It's been a real nightmare trying to figure out how to get someone in to officiate the triple wedding. The prison chaplain had (eventually, and with extreme reluctance) agreed to do it as a favor to Mira. Carlos is pretty sure that Mira is either blackmailing or threatening him.

And that's not even addressing the issue of how to get Gab in, because all three couples had insisted that he has to be there. The current plan is for Diana to sneak him in, because she's the least suspicious looking of the group. Carlos doesn't know what they're going to do if she's caught sneaking the dog in. The guards might even kick them all out without letting them see Mira, and that would be an absolutely awful end to all these wedding plans—

Someone smacks him on the back of the head, so sharply that Carlos jerks forward a little. He turns around to see Phi just behind him, standing on her tiptoes so she can reach his head, and looking thoroughly unimpressed. "Stop," she says.

"Stop what?"

"Stop looking worried," Phi elaborates. "We're the ones that aren't getting married—you, me, and Sean. And the other you. We need to stay sane for everyone else."

Carlos raises his eyebrows.

"Alright," Phi says. "Maybe sane is the wrong word to use for this group. Calm. We'll stay calm."

"I'll be calm when these weddings are over," Carlos says. He grabs his keys from the pile next to the front door, and jerks his head to indicate he's on his way out. "I'm going to go pick up everyone else from the airport. You'll make sure this group gets to the prison on time?"

Phi nods, and Carlos heads out to get the rest of the wedding guests.

-//-

There's not many people, other than the survivors of the Decision Game, that had been invited to the wedding. Akane's brother is coming. Junpei's parents (who apparently know absolutely nothing about what he's been up to for the past few years, and are pretty thoroughly confused about this entire strange set of circumstances). The older Phi. One or two odd hangers on. Carlos had rented a decent size van to chauffer them around in, but suddenly he's worried there won't be enough space.

It's a tight fit. But they make it. The ride from the airport to the prison is less than fun, and then waiting for everyone else in the parking lot is _really_ not fun. Carlos is relieved when Eric drives up in his tiny little smart car (or 'the clown car', as Phi has christened it), with everyone else packed inside. "Let's get this over with," he says. "Shall we?"

"I can just feel how excited you are," Junpei deadpans—which turns out to be a bad idea, because it immediately attracts his parents' attention to him.

"Junpei," Carlos hears Mrs. Tenmyouji whisper to her son. "You didn't mention that all your friends are so… odd. Where did you say you met them, again?"

Carlos hurries ahead, and leaves Junpei to come up with some acceptable explanation. Mentally, he wishes Junpei the best of luck.

-//-

The ceremony itself is short. Carlos has the distinct impression that Mira has been harassing the poor chaplain about this for weeks, and he just wants to get this over with and get as far away from her as possible. Carlos surprises himself by feeling vaguely indignant about this—Mira might be a terrifying serial killer who has, technically, murdered a good chunk of her wedding guests in various alternate realities—but she's _their_ terrifying serial killer.

Still. In the rushed chaos of it all, certain moments stand out to Carlos with particular clarity. Mira, looking uncharacteristically nervous, as she says _I do_. Eric, looking characteristically terrified, as he puts the ring on her finger. The way they kind of stare at each other in the moments just after (until Mira smiles, and Eric grins back).

Sigma, one arm around Diana's waist as he kisses his bride—Phi, looking on with pride in the background. Gab wriggling away from Diana right before she's about to say _I do,_ and putting a five minute halt to the whole wedding while he runs around licking everyone in sight.

Akane, almost crying when Junpei finally moves her ring onto the correct finger. Junpei _actually_ crying. Junpei's father stage whispering _'she killed_ how _many people?'_ when someone finally tells him what Mira did to get in jail.

She gives him her very best piranha smile, which freaks him out, and luckily the ceremony ends only a few minutes after that.

All in all, Carlos isn't sure there's ever been a stranger wedding in all of human history. He's glad he was there for this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! I bet you thought I'd forgotten about this fic.
> 
> ...well, I did! But then I remembered, so here we are.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! This is the only idea I had left knocking around in my brain, so here we go.

"It's a child," Akane says, when Junpei brings the infant home.

"You're very observant," Junpei says, and he's rewarded with a little twitch at the corner of Akane's mouth that means she's trying not to laugh. After three decades of marriage, he knows just when it's coming, just what will make her smile, but that doesn't mean he appreciates any of it less.

"What are you doing, bringing a _baby_ home?" Akane presses, hand on her hip.

"Well, I found him," Junpei says. "He'd been left."

"Abandoned?"

Junpei nods. "It didn't seem right to leave him."

"So instead of calling the police, or taking him to someone that could take care of him, you brought him here?"

"I just wanted to get him a little warmed up first," Junpei says, just a shade defensively. "I was worried he might freeze solid if he was out there in the cold for so long."

"It's the middle of July, Junpei."

Well, yes. It is. But… "Look how small he is," Junpei says. "I just…" And he trails off. They've never had children, never seriously considered it, really. There's always been too many other things going on—saving the world, researching the morphogenic field, keeping their crazy friends in line…

"We're not keeping him," Akane says, firm but gentle. "He probably has a family somewhere."

"That abandoned him!"

"Akane…"

"Junpei!"

They stare at each other. Between them, the baby kicks a little in Junpei's arms. He smiles at Akane, a big, toothless grin.

"We're not keeping him," she says again, much less forcefully.

-//-

In the end, they call him Quark. It's actually Sigma's idea—he's the first of their friends to come visit when they take the baby to the hospital to be checked. "I was worried you wouldn't find him in this universe," he tells Junpei, as he leans over the child.

"Did you know about him?" Akane asks. She sounds exasperated. "You saw him in the future before you shifted into this universe?"

The two of them somehow manage to steer the conversation away from the baby and onto a highly technical discussion of diverging universes. Junpei very quickly attracts the attention of the doctor that is supposed to be examining the baby. After all these years, he's used to the way pretty much all his friends are constantly talking about things that most people think are impossible. He's sort of proud of how good he is at distracting people so they don't notice how weird they all are.

Quark.

When the doctor is done, and while Akane and Sigma are still debating the finer points of multiple universes, Junpei goes over to the bassinet where the baby is lying, and runs one finger over the child's soft hair. It's not a bad name.

After a while, he becomes aware of Akane pressing against him—Junpei jerks and looks around. Apparently, Sigma's gone out of the room, and it's just the three of them left.

"If the police don't find somewhere he's supposed to be," Junpei says. "I think… _maybe_ we could keep him."

"I think maybe you're right," Akane admits.

Standing there, with Akane's arms around him, with Quark on the bassinet between them, with Sigma somewhere nearby and his phone exploding with excited text messages from the rest of their friends, Junpei feels like he's finally found a full family. They're not missing anything or anyone, and it makes him feel _whole_ like he never has before.


End file.
